


Smells Like Home

by TakingOverMidnight3482



Series: Julie and the Phantoms One-Shots: Ghostly Mishaps [7]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex and Reggie were definitely Disney kids, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Julie steals Reggie's flannel, and comforting smells ensue, friendship pile, post season one, they have a lot of movies to catch up on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26625646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakingOverMidnight3482/pseuds/TakingOverMidnight3482
Summary: The guys looked up from where they’d been consoling Alex, Luke’s mouth opening, only for everyone to pause and just stare at her. She frowned, looking between the three of them. “What?”“Is that…is that my flannel?” Reggie asked, sounding surprised.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie
Series: Julie and the Phantoms One-Shots: Ghostly Mishaps [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925116
Comments: 51
Kudos: 1192





	Smells Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> Idk if anyone else finds like...people's smells as comforting as I do? You know how like, everyone has their own scent that lingers in their clothes? I just got the image of Julie stealing Reggie's flannel in my head and this happened. I'm intrigued to see if she COULD steal their stuff lol. 
> 
> Am I writing a lot of fluff/found family? Yes absolutely. Is anyone mad about it? Boy I hope not. 
> 
> Post Season One, Julie can touch the guys all the time and Carlos and Ray are aware they're there, but can't see them.

She found it draped on the back of the couch in the garage, flung carelessly, like Reggie hadn’t really meant to leave it there, but nevertheless had. It was soft, when she picked it up (she was a little amazed she could), worn against her fingers, and Julie was cold, so she slid it on without a second thought. It was just slightly too big on her, cozy, and she wrapped it tight around her chest and headed back inside.

Her dad was at a photoshoot and Carlos was at practice, so she had the house to herself for at least a couple hours. She had no idea where the guys were – they’d been helping Alex look for Willie ever since they broke the curse. She couldn’t help, given that she couldn’t see Willie, so as much as it pained her, she had stayed behind.

She was catching up on the most recent season of The Good Place. She’d started it with Carlos months ago, and then when the third season had come out, they’d both been too busy to continue, what with band rehearsals and baseball practice. He’d given her the go-ahead to watch it without him, as she had to him, so now that she had a free moment, she started it up again.

She was two episodes in when the guys appeared in the living room, looking exhausted. Julie decided immediately not to mention the tears on Alex’s cheeks. “Didn’t go well?” she asked softly, pausing the show.

The guys looked up from where they’d been consoling Alex, Luke’s mouth opening, only for everyone to pause and just stare at her. She frowned, looking between the three of them. “What?”

“Is that…is that my flannel?” Reggie asked, sounding surprised.

Julie glanced down – she’d forgotten she had it on. “Oh! Yeah, sorry. You left it in the garage and I was cold. You want it back?”

Reggie’s smile was fond when she looked back up, hands already moving to take it off. “No, no, it’s okay. I just…didn’t think you’d be able to grab it.”

Luke’s chuckle broke the room. “Does it still smell like three dollar cologne?” he snorted.

As Reggie shoved him, Julie blinked and lifted the collar of the flannel to her nose, taking a deep breath. It hadn’t occurred to her to smell it – ghosts didn’t really have a smell.

Her mom had always smelled like lavender (ironic, given her favorite flower and her name were not) and baby powder, with a touch of fresh soil. Carlos smelled like whatever he’d eaten for dinner, but he also almost always had the faintest whiff of baseball rubber around him. Her father smelled like chlorine, oddly comforting, and usually some kind of baked good. Almost always of cinnamon. Flynn always smelled like her conditioner, soapy and citrusy, and usually a little bit like some kind of spice or food.

But a ghost?

When an actual scent hit her nose, she nearly choked. Not in a bad way.

Reggie’s flannel smelled like wood – campfires and smoke, maybe a little bit of grease. The faintest, barely there glimpse of sweat, likely from being on stage, and old leather, probably from being combined with his other jacket so often. It was…almost exactly what she expected him to smell like.

She didn’t realize she was tearing up until cold hands closed over her free one, still holding the remote. She looked up to find Reggie kneeling in front of her, eyes worried. “Come on, I can’t smell _that_ bad,” he joked feebly as he removed the remote from her fingers and set it on the coffee table.

She didn’t quite know how to explain to them what she was feeling. _Julie_ wasn’t even quite sure what she was feeling. She just…she knew her family, how they smelled. It was comforting. It was warm. They were smells that reminded her of home. After her mother’s death, she would often carry around lavender hand cream. She smelled it when she was on the verge of a breakdown, and it always leveled her out.

It had never occurred to Julie that the guys might have their own, homey scents. Never occurred to her how much more human that made them feel.

“No,” she said, realizing she’d been quiet too long and the guys were all staring at her in concern. “N-No, no, it…it smells like you.”

Reggie’s lips parted, eyes flickering over her face, and she gave in to the urge to hug him, wrapping her arms tight around his neck. He stumbled in surprise but caught himself, arms curling around her back tightly. “Whoa. Not that I’m one to say no to a hug-” Alex snorted “-but are you okay?”

She nodded against his shoulder, opening her eyes to look over at Alex and Luke. Luke’s hand was still on Alex’s back, probably absently, and she offered a tiny smile. “I’m okay,” she promised them. “I just…”

Julie pulled back from Reggie, hands lingering on his arms. “It smells like you,” she murmured, still a little overwhelmed. “Like… _you_.”

Something like understanding seemed to cross his face and his lips tilted up in a grin. “That’s a good thing?” he clarified. “Nothing too gross?”

“You smell like summer,” she said softly, and then Reggie was flopping on the couch next to her, huddled up against her side and leaning his head on her shoulder.

She looked up at the motion to her left, to find Alex shrugging off his hoodie and Luke his own flannel. Before she could ask, she was promptly laden with the cloth, a surprised laugh spilling from her lips. Alex climbed over them and flopped down against the arm of the couch, leaving the space next to Julie open for Luke to climb into.

She adjusted, sliding on Alex’s hoodie and then Reggie and Luke’s flannels over it. It was almost too warm, but she didn’t mind. It was a comfortable warmth. She was aware of the guys watching her as she burrowed her nose into the fabrics of their clothes.

Alex’s sweatshirt, like Reggie’s flannel, had the faintest tang of sweat. But it was overpowered by lemons and honey, almost floral, in a way that reminded Julie of her mother. Despite the sweat, it smelled clean and fresh. Springy.

Luke’s flannel was worn and, as was becoming common, tinged with sweat. The slight, faint smell of cologne, probably whatever had been popular back in the 90s. A woody smell, but sharper and colder than Reggie’s bonfire. There was a gentle hint of deodorant there, and what reminded her ever so slightly of a freshly baked waffle cone.

The tears were still prickling, but now Reggie’s head was on her shoulder, Luke’s tilted against her temple, and Alex’s hand had reached across to hold hers. “I’m sorry you didn’t find Willie yet,” she said without really planning to.

Alex’s grip tightened, and Luke reached over and took his free hand. “We’ll find him,” Alex said firmly, and Julie had no doubt they would. “Just…not tonight.”

She hummed and squeezed Alex’s hand, holding out her own free one to lace it with Reggie’s. Despite the fact that they were ghosts, despite how warm she was, she’d never felt quite so safe. Hadn’t felt this at-home since her mother was alive. She’d never been so grateful that she could touch them.

“What were you watching?” Luke asked after a moment had passed with no one speaking. His thumb was caressing Alex’s knuckles.

“The Good Place,” Julie said, and then she chuckled. “It’s a show about the afterlife.”

“Dude,” Reggie snorted.

“We can watch something else though,” she said, letting go of Reggie’s hand momentarily to grab the remote. “It feels wrong watching it without Carlos anyway.”

Alex shifted on the couch, and Julie smiled as he leaned into Luke’s side, his left leg draping over Luke’s right. “Have there um…have there been a lot of new Disney movies since we died?”

“Oh my _god,_ you guys are going to _love_ Moana.”

She found the movie and settled in as the opening song started. With Reggie’s hand laced through her left, Alex’s warm in her right, Reggie’s head on her shoulder, Luke pressed firm against her side, and all three of the guys’ shirts piled against her body, the feel and smell of them comforting her?

It was no shock that her father and Carlos found them all cuddled on the couch an hour and a half later, Julie sound asleep with her head in Reggie’s lap, the guys all still touching in some way as they watched Moana approach Te Fiti.

**Author's Note:**

> Obvi Ray and Carlos can't see that the guys are there, but she's wearing all of their shirts and her head is literally in Reggie's lap, so it probably looks like her head is floating lmao.


End file.
